Digging Deep for Dinner

We eat, we eat, we eat. Three times a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If you’re lucky, your parents taught you how to bake and broil or maybe you learned how to cook up casseroles and cookies in your home economics class in school.

It’s not easy to bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan, and is bacon really good for you anyway?

If you struggle putting food on the table every night, while juggling all the other things that are on your “to do” list, you’re not alone.

I’ve been teaching, coaching and cooking with hundreds of women, many mothers, over the past eight years and this is what I hear: You want something more sustainable then a detox or 7-day diet. You don’t want to feel deprived. You want something simpler and healthier for yourself and your family. You want to feel part of a bigger community that cares about what they eat. You want ideas for kids who are “particular” about what they eat (aka picky). You want more energy because at the end of the day, the last thing you feel like doing is cooking.

Here are five things that you can do to take the stress out of preparing meals:

1) Have a plan. Write it down on the back of an envelope, your checkbook, or type it in your computer. Don’t wait until the last minute or you’ll face the dinner dilemma.

2) Get over fancy. Meals don’t have to be gourmet to be good. They need to have good quality ingredients. Nothing wrong with an egg for dinner with a slice of tomato and a few vegetables.

3) Delegate. Be a CFO (Chief Food Officer) and entrust dinner responsibilities to other members of the family! Kids can set the table, prep and assist. Don’t pass up opportunities to teach your kids how to cook!

4) Most of the stress around dinner time comes from leaving too little time to prep and eat. Put “dinnertime” in your daily calendar and allot sufficient time to chop a little, stir a lot and dance in between to your favorite music!

5) Get organized and start with what you know. Take stock of your favorite dishes, and your favorite foods so that you always have something to turn to when your mind is blank!

Download a free copy of my Menu Planning Toolkit for Family Chefs on our web site with five simple steps to put the joy into dinner time, some menu planners, last minute meals and grocery lists. What’s more important than the fuel you feed yourself and your family?

If you’re really looking to dig in to help you find some balance in your meals and your life, check out the new program I just launched with Kath Gallant, award winning chef from Blue Moon Evolution: Dig In: Real Food Solutions.

www.diginrealfood.com

Are you ready to Dig In?